I posted my Best Films of 2023 list a couple of week back, here, and will continue updating it as I whittle down my “need to see” list. And as I did last year, I’ll also be tracking and updating my Oscar preferences (not predictions) on this page until the 2023 film season officially ends (for me) with the 96th Academy Awards show on March 10, 2024.

A few words about a film that seems to be atop every list I’m seeing for 2023, but which you will find notably absent in my Oscar preferences below: Flowers of the Killer Moon. I did watch it, and I had previously read the book by David Grann, and now I want my 3.5 hours back. I found the film sluggish, often poorly acted (did Leonardo DiCaprio have botox or something to put his mouth into a forced, unnatural permanent frown that never changes?), and with some directorial/screenplay choices that were frankly awful, e.g. going from the nominal drama of the final court scene into a closing recreation of the story on a 1940s/1950s radio show with emphasis on the humorous ways that Foley artists made sounds was just tonally jarring, and let whatever tension and suspense could have been built to a climax out with a slow wheezing self-indulgent sigh.

Things director Martin Scorsese and his screenwriters left out and things they left in from the book, ostensibly to make it a better movie from a story-telling standpoint, worked to the opposite effect for me, e.g. in the movie, you knew who the boss badman was right early in the story, and never really saw him as anything but, so the character experienced little depth, growth, or change. In the book, you don’t know who the big bad is until well into the narrative, so that was a powerful twist. The arrival of the Federal investigators in the film was also ineffectual compared to the book, which gave more background into the emergence of the FBI, and how/why this case was so important to that story. Also, Jesse Plemons continually calling DiCaprio “son,” even though DiCaprio is 15 years older than him (and looks it) was laughable. I do quite like Jesse Plemons generally, but having read David Grann’s descriptions of the physical stature, history, and behavior of the character he played, he wasn’t a good or accurate choice for this role.

I thought Lily Gladstone was so, so very good in the subtle and moving and largely unseen The Unknown Country, and having loved that part, I just don’t get the raves for her performance here. The film never showed or made it believable to me as to why her character ever would have fallen for and married DiCaprio’s character, who was portrayed as a lunk and a flunky and a failure, right from the git-go, no great catch for a woman of her status, stature, smarts, history, and heritage. Grann did a much better job on that front in his book. And John Lithgow and Brendan Fraser as the attorneys in the final court scenes were in full-on cheese mode in their performances, jarringly bad and unbelievable.

Anyway. I generally love Martin Scorsese (except for Hugo, which I hated) and I liked the book (though it’s not the best of the three books I’ve read by Grann) and the story of the Osage Indian Murders is truly an amazing and horrifying one, tragically forgotten, and worth bringing back to the fore of historical perception, much as the geographically and temporally related Tulsa Race Riots have been in recent years through a variety of books and films. But without question, Killers of the Flower Moon is this year’s Dune or Little Women for me: a “big” movie that seemed to be preordained for greatness by the Hollywood press before anybody actually saw it, and that felt incredibly over-rated and miscast to me accordingly when I actually did. Having invested 3.5 hours in it, it changed nothing on my personal preferences for the most award-worthy films on any front: directorial, acting, cinematography, screenplay, etc. I’ll nod my cap slightly semi-approvingly in the direction of the late Robbie Robertson’s score, but even that got a bit heavy-handed and distracting at times.

So I won’t be rooting for Killers nor its cast nor crew when this year’s Oscars are announced. Which makes me question, on some plane, why I still care about the Oscars at all, given how often my own sense of the year’s greatness falls awry of the actual industry’s senses. It doesn’t really make any logical sense, but that show’s broadcast and the Super Bowl are about the only two “must-see TV” events for me anymore. The Tony’s were never my bag, as my exposure to Broadway-level theater is minimal. Since I’ve not been much of a television watcher until COVID times, I’ve also not been much engaged with the Emmy’s. And in the realm of my greatest cultural love, music, the Grammy’s have long been a negligible-to-laughable misguided embarrassment in my mind, much as are nominations to the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame.

But the Oscars still seem to matter to me, as does the Cannes Film Festival, despite the myriad problematic aspects of both of those events and the organizations that produce them. Call me blinkered or blinded or Kool Aid-poisoned or whatever, but I am happy to see the films I love win awards at those venues, and annoyed when truly worthy films are shunned. There’s still some emotional and intellectual investment, at bottom line, though I cannot explain why in any particularly lucid fashion.

That said, if I were allowed to be Film Emperor for a Day and to be able to prescribe the nominees for the 2024 Academy Awards show, here’s what I’d pick among the major (to me) categories. I wish that the Academy did not allow up to ten best film nominees each year, but since they do, I’ll go along with that rubric and fill that bucket.

Best Film:

• American Fiction
• Anatomy of a Fall
• Barbie
• Beau Is Afraid
• The Holdovers
• Oppenheimer
• Past Lives
• Poor Things
• Society of the Snow
• The Zone of Interest

Best Director:

• Ari Aster, Beau if Afraid
• Jonathan Glazer, The Zone of Interest
• Yorgos Lanthimos, Poor Things
• Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer
• Justine Triet, Anatomy of a Fall

Best Actor:

• Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction
  
• Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers
• Barry Keoghan, Saltburn
• Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer
• Joaquin Phoenix, Beau is Afraid

Best Actress:

• Lily Gladstone, The Unknown Country
• Sandra Hüller, Anatomy of a Fall
• Greta Lee, Past Lives
• Margot Robbie, Barbie
• Emma Stone, Poor Things

Best Supporting Actor:

• Ryan Gosling, Barbie
• Luis Guzmán, Story Ave
• Milo Machado Graner, Anatomy of a Fall
• Sterling K. Brown, American Fiction
• Dominic Sessa, The Holdovers

Best Supporting Actress:

• America Ferrara, Barbie
• Scarlett Johansson, Asteroid City
• Patti LuPone, Beau is Afraid
• Rosamund Pike, Saltburn
• Da’Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers

Best International Feature:

• Anatomy of a Fall
• Sisu
• Society of the Snow
• Unicorn Wars
• The Zone of Interest

Best Cinematography:

• Hoyte van Hoytema, Oppenheimer
• Pawel Pogorzelski, Beau is Afraid
• Robbie Ryan, Poor Things
• Robert Yeoman, Asteroid City
• Łukasz Żal, The Zone of Interest
  

Best Original Screenplay:

• Ari Aster, Beau is Afraid
• Cherry Chevapravatdumrong, Teresa Hsiao, Adele Lim, Joy Ride
• Theodore Schaefer, Patrick Lawler, Giving Birth to a Butterfly
• Justine Triet, Arthur Harari, Anatomy of a Fall
• Alberto Vázquez, Unicorn Wars

Best Adapted Screenplay:

• Ariela Barer, Jordan Sjol, Daniel Goldhaber, How to Blow Up a Pipeline
• Robert L. Baird, Lloyd Taylor, Nimona
• Jonathan Glazer, The Zone of Interest
• Cord Jefferson, American Fiction
• Tony McNamara, Poor Things

Best Score:

• Jerskin Fendrix, Poor Things
• Ludwig Goransson, Oppenheimer
• Laura Karpman, American Fiction
• Mica Levi, Zone of Interest
• Anthony Willis, Saltburn

Most of the films I’ve cited are reasonably well known. But of the obscurities, this one is a shockingly profound masterpiece of a parable that I would love see receive some plaudits. Click the poster to scope the preview.

Today’s post marks the final one in my year-end “Best Of” roster, a pleasing point for the chronic and compulsive list-maker that lives in my brain housing group, scribbling, always scribbling, and muttering metaphorically. I will do my usual “Year in Review” post sometime on or before December 31, wrapping up a variety of annual themes with a variety of annual reports, then we’ll kick 2023 to the curb here and get on with all things 2024. Which, for the math geeks among you, is a tetrahedral number, the first year to carry such a numerological designation in our Nation’s independent history. (The last time it happened was in 1771). The year 2024 also factors nicely as 2³ • 11 • 23, carrying a bit of ’23 forward with us, behind the scenes as it were. I like that. Nerd out with yr wordZ out!

As I have pointed out over the past couple of years, “Best Television” is one annual list that I wouldn’t, and couldn’t, have meaningfully prepared prior to the Anno Virum. In the ’60s and ’70s, I assume I was a fairly typical television-watching kid/teen from a fairly typical television-watching family, not much outside the mainstream, keeping reasonably well abreast of and casually consuming then-popular shows, either in real time or in syndication, or both. But some time in the very early 1980s, I mostly stopped watching many television shows, and that remained my norm pretty much right up until 2020, with only a few notable exceptions.

I was super big on and invested in Twin Peaks in the ’90s, yeah, because David Lynch must be watched, always. And I watched Daria and Seinfeld and Strangers With Candy in their entireties. Breaking Bad caught and held my attention, along with a few other relatively short-lived comedies, most memorably My Name Is Earl, Malcolm in the Middle, Flight of the Conchords, and Schitts Creek. But beyond that, I had no “must watch” television shows from about 1980 to about 2020, when the rest of the world was losing its collective mind over things like The Sopranos and The Wire and Lost and Mad Men and Six Feet Under and Friends and The X Files and 30 Rock and The West Wing and Downton Abbey and Game of Thrones and on and on and on.

Marcia and Katelin watched a lot of those shows (along with some reality TV stuff), but during their TV time, I’d typically be at my computer, writing, or listening to music, or mucking about in various online communities, or doing volunteer/board stuff. We were always big on movie rentals, in both pre-streaming days and in the modern paradigm, and I would watch films on television regularly, and sports, but just not TV shows. Then, of course, the plague arrived, bringing lockdowns and social distancing in its wake, and Marcia and I adjusted our home-life schedules accordingly to have more purposeful together-time, including watching television shows that I would likely have skipped in pre-isolation days.

That habit stuck with us, and we still generally do watch television shows or movies most nights when we are home. We sampled and bailed on some things, or we gritted our teeth and finished things that we didn’t really enjoy, hoping they’d get better or live up to the advance billing that had captured our attention in the first place. But most of the time, we were pretty good about our advance vetting practices and enjoyed the things we sat to watch together. We have access to a few of the larger streaming services, but not all of them, so some things that we might have liked, we didn’t get. And some of this year’s bigger-name shows in other people’s lists and award season forecasts just didn’t interest me conceptually (most notably White Lotus, Succession, The Righteous Gemstones, The Crown, and The Bear), so I didn’t watch them.

And so, as with my music lists, my ratings are bound by what I like, and what was available to me, and what I actually watched, and my tastes may be a bit out of line with contemporary pop culture, but perhaps that’s what makes this list of interest. Or perhaps not. I’m making it, either way.

As a preamble to the list of my dozen favorite television shows of 2023, I open with my Honorable Mentions list. These are the shows that I enjoyed well enough to keep watching over the past twelve months, but not to a point that makes me want to laud them as the best of the best this year; the list is presented in alphabetical order accordingly:

• Beavis and Butthead (Season Ten)
• The Consultant (Limited Series)
• The Curse (Season One, in Progress)
• Disenchantment (Season Five)
• The Fall of the House of Usher (Limited Series)
• Hilda (Season Three)
• I’m A Virgo (Limited Series)
• Lucky Hank (Season One)
• Our Flag Means Death (Season Two)
• Party Down (Season Three)
• Planet Earth III (Limited Series)
• Rick and Morty (Season Seven)
• Solar Opposites (Season Four)
• Yellowjackets (Season Two)

And then here are the fifteen serials that I’d cite as the Best Television of 2023, within all of the constraints noted above. These shows are presented in ascending order, counting toward what I consider to be 2023’s very finest television experience. I’ve embedded the trailers for the most recent seasons inside the listing below, should you wish to sample and/or binge. Every one of these shows is worthy of such exploration.

#15. Swarm (Limited Series)

#14. Deadloch (Season One)

#13. Physical (Season Three)

#12. What We Do In The Shadows (Season Five)

#11. Such Brave Girls (Season One)

#10. Shoresy (Season Two)

#9. Colin From Accounts (Season One)

#8. Ted Lasso (Season Three)

#7. Fleishman Is In Trouble (Limited Series)

#6. Beef (Limited Series)

#5. Platonic (Season One)

#4. Somebody Somewhere (Season Two)

#3. Letterkenny (Season Twelve)

#2. Scavengers Reign (Season One)

#1. Reservation Dogs (Season Three)

Our post-COVID approach to film viewing has gotten more deeply ingrained in 2023, as the vast majority of movies we watched were screened in our comfy chairs at home in front of our nice television and loud sound bar. I suppose on some plane that I miss the excitement and spectacle of seeing a film with others on a giant screen soon after its release. But then, given the ways in which ever-more people do not seem to understand how to act in public, I do still think that I’m happier experiencing the marvels of movies without having to deal with idiots fiddling with cellphones or by chatting audience members or by glitchy sound/projection or by annoyingly bright “EXIT” signs above open doors that admit the sounds of a crowded lobby into my viewing space. I have a hard time imagining going back to the former paradigm.

Among my various year end lists (Best Albums of 2023 and Best Books of 2023 have already been posted), I have come to accept that rating and ranking Best Films must be an iterative process that I generally continue through until the Oscars are awarded. (I know they don’t matter, but the Oscars and the Super Bowl are about the only two wide-reach cultural television events that I still zealously engage with). In part, this is due to the fact that since I am waiting to see things until they are available on my home entertainment system, I’m going to lag the general theatrical release schedules. But in larger part, it’s because those theatrical release schedules for high-profile films are so intentionally ridiculous. I covered that aspect in a post last year called My Art Must Stew. The key point made there vis-à-vis films was as follows:

In trying to see how and where my own tastes might be aligning with the cinematic zeitgeist, I recently looked at one of the major trade magazines to see which of my favorite films and performances of the year might be trending highly with the professional cinematic chattering class. And I have to say that I was shocked that not a single one of my favorite films thus far appeared on the top contenders’ lists for any of what I count as the major Academy Award categories (Best Film, Director, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Cinematography, Adapted Screenplay, Original Screenplay, Score). Not one! NOT! ONE!!

Interestingly, though, the reason for that was not because I have bad taste, but rather because none of the critics’ favorite films and performances have actually been released where regular folks like you and I can see them. They’ve screened at some select festivals or in very limited runs, for the most part, and are then being hoarded until the very end of the year for wide release, since apparently Oscar voters all have memory issues and have to see things within days or weeks or submitting their ballots. The net effect of this approach is that it makes release date much more important than it should be in critical consideration of the year’s best projects, and it also has a self-fulfilling prophecy aspect, as the critics and trade magazines and online repeaters get told over and over again what the best of the best is going to be, before it’s possible to make any decisions based on, you know, actually seeing the films in question.

FINAL UPDATE: I group the listing of my current 40 favorite 2023 films into three categories below: English-language feature films, foreign-language films receiving first wide U.S. release in 2023, and documentary features. I’ve sorted them alphabetically within each group, and I’ve then identified what I consider to be sixteen of the year’s very best films in bold blue text.

English Language Feature Films:

• American Fiction
• Asteroid City
• Barbie
• Beau Is Afraid
• The Burial
• Dream Scenario
• Enys Men
• Fremont
• Giving Birth to a Butterfly
• The Holdovers
• How to Blow Up a Pipeline
• Joy Ride
• Landscape With Invisible Hand
• Leave the World Behind
• LOLA
• Maestro
• May December
• Nimona
• Oppenheimer
• Past Lives
• Poor Things
• Rye Lane
• Saltburn
• Story Ave
• The Unknown Country

Foreign Language Films Receiving U.S. Release:

• Afire
• Anatomy of a Fall
• Falcon Lake
• Fallen Leaves
• Godland
• Sisu
• Smoking Causes Coughing
• Society of the Snow
• Unicorn Wars
• The Zone of Interest

Documentary Films:

• June
• Mutiny in Heaven: The Birthday Party
• Reinventing Elvis: The ’68 Comeback
• Squaring the Circle: The Story of Hipgnosis
• The Stones and Brian Jones

I’ll create a separate post later in the year digging deeper into the component elements of these films with my predictions (or desires) for the Oscar nominees and winners in the major categories. It seems not worth doing yet given all of the A-list films pending over the next few weeks. But right here, right now, if I had to do a five-film listing of the best things I saw and enjoyed this year, the film posters below would point the way to a tremendous One-Day JES Film Festival that would have me carb-shocked and salt-poisoned with popcorn and filled with coagulated arteries from that yummy yellow iridescent fake butter food product in no time. Ahh, the joys of movies!

I posted my Best Films of 2022 list a couple of week back, here, and have been updating it as I’ve whittled down my “need to see” list. When I posted it, I also included some Oscar-linked lists based on the categories that I care the most about. I’ve been updating that list as well, but it’s long enough that it felt like it might need its own post. Which you’re now reading.

I don’t know why I still care about the Oscars, but I do. That show’s broadcast and the Super Bowl are about the only two “must-see TV” events for me anymore. The Tony’s were never my bag, as my exposure to Broadway-level theater is minimal. Since I’ve not been much of a television watcher until COVID times, as discussed here, I’ve also not been much engaged with the Emmy’s. And in the realm of my greatest cultural love, music, the Grammy’s have long been a negligible-to-laughable misguided embarrassment in my mind, much as are nominations to the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame.

But the Oscars still seem to matter to me, as does the Cannes Film Festival, despite the myriad problematic aspects of both of those events and the organizations that produce them. Call me blinkered or blinded or Kool Aid-poisoned or whatever, but I am happy to see the films I love win awards at those venues, and annoyed when truly worthy films are shunned. There’s still some emotional and intellectual investment, at bottom line, though I cannot explain why in any particularly lucid fashion.

That said, if I were allowed to be Film Emperor for a Day and to be able to prescribe the nominees for the 2023 Oscars, here’s what I’d pick among the major (to me) categories. I wish that the Academy did not allow up to ten best film nominees each year, but since they do, I’ll go along with that rubric and fill that bucket.

Best Film:

• Aftersun
• Babylon
• The Banshees of Inisherin
• Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths
• EO
• Everything Everywhere All at Once
• The Good Boss
• Official Competition
• The Outfit
• Triangle of Sadness

Best Director:

• Damien Chazelle, Babylon
• Gastón Duprat and Mariano Cohn, Official Competition
• Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All At Once
• Alejandro González Iñárritu, Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths
• Ruben Östlund, Triangle of Sadness

Best Actor:

• Antonio Banderas, Official Competition
• Javier Bardem, The Good Boss
• Austin Butler, Elvis
• Mark Rylance, The Outfit
• Ralph Fiennes, The Menu
  

Best Actress:

• Penélope Cruz, Official Competition
• Rebecca Hall, Resurrection
• Regina Hall, Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul
• Margot Robbie, Babylon
  
• Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All at Once

Best Supporting Actor:

• Mentor Ba, Saloum
• Brendan Gleeson, The Banshees of Inisherin
• Tom Hanks, Elvis
• Woody Harrelson, Triangle of Sadness
  
• Pedro Pascal, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

Best Supporting Actress:

• Hong Chau, The Menu
• Kerry Condon, The Banshees of Inisherin
• Jamie Lee Curtis, Everything Everywhere All at Once
• Dolly De Leon, Triangle of Sadness
  
• Jean Smart, Babylon

Best Animated Feature:

• Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood
• Beavis and Butthead Do The Universe
• Mad God
• Marcel the Shell With Shoes On
• Minions: The Rise of Gru

Best International Feature:

• Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths
• EO
• The Good Boss
• Official Competition
• You Won’t Be Alone

Best Cinematography:

• Darius Khondji, Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths
• Sophie Winqvist, Clara Sola
• Linus Sandgrin, Babylon
• Larkin Seiple, Everything Everywhere All at Once
• Fredrik Wenzel, Triangle of Sadness

Best Original Screenplay:

• Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin
• Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All At Once
• Seth Reiss and Will Tracy, The Menu
• Mariano Cohn, Andrés Duprat and Gastón Duprat, Official Competition
• Ruben Östlund, Triangle of Sadness

Best Adapted Screenplay:

• K.D. Dávila, Emergency
• Rian Johnson, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
• Simon Farnaby, The Phantom of the Open
• Alessio Rigo de Righi and Matteo Zoppis, The Tale of King Crab
• Emma Donoghue, Sebastián Lelio and Alice Birch, The Wonder

The yacht sequence in “Triangle of Sadness” was one of the most incredible and horrifying acts of film-making I can recall in recent years. Give those folks some Oscars!

As I sit here at my computer this morning, hacking and sniffling through day four of my current COVID bout, it seems like a good time and place to make another list because, hey, that’s how I roll at this time each year, sick or well. So shall we reflect together, y’all and I, on what we watched on the idiot box this year? Let’s give it a go, I say. Or maybe that’s the drugs talking . . .

I must point out up front that this is one year-end list that I wouldn’t, and couldn’t, have meaningfully prepared prior to the Anno Virum. In the ’60s and ’70s, I assume I was a fairly typical television-watching kid/teen from a fairly typical television-watching family, not much outside the mainstream, keeping reasonably well abreast of and casually consuming then-popular shows, either in real time or in syndication, or both. But some time in the very early 1980s, I generally stopped watching broadcast or cable television shows, and that remained my norm pretty much right up until 2020, with only a few notable exceptions.

I was down with Twin Peaks and Seinfeld in the ’90s, yeah. And I watched Daria and Strangers With Candy in their entireties. Breaking Bad caught and held my attention, though Better Call Saul did not. A few other relatively short-lived comedies worked for me, most notably My Name Is Earl, Malcolm in the Middle, Beavis and Butthead, In Living Color, Flight of the Conchords, and Schitts Creek. But beyond that, I can’t recall having many “must watch” shows from about 1980 to about 2020, when the rest of the world was losing its collective mind over things like The Sopranos and The Wire and Lost and Mad Men and Six Feet Under and The X Files and 30 Rock and The West Wing and Downton Abbey and Game of Thrones and on and on and on.

Marcia and Katelin watched a lot of those shows (along with some reality TV stuff), but during their TV time, I’d typically be at my computer, writing, or listening to music, or mucking about in various online communities, or doing volunteer/board stuff. We were always big on movie rentals, in both pre-streaming days and in the modern paradigm, and I would watch films on television regularly, and sports, but just not TV shows. Then, of course, the plague arrived, bringing lockdowns and social distancing in its wake, and Marcia and I adjusted our home-life schedules accordingly to have more together-time, including watching television shows that I would likely have skipped in pre-isolation days.

While the most-restrictive periods of our COVID era have mostly passed (this week’s personal sickness and isolation notwithstanding), we’ve kept going with our television watching together, such that feel like I’ve actually experienced enough to have valid opinions on what moved me most in 2022. I didn’t keep track in real time of what I was watching, the way I do with music, and books, and films, but looking at a few online resources, I think I watched at least one full season of 27 different shows this year. I know we sampled and bailed on probably a dozen others beyond that.

I note that we’ve just begun the as-yet-incomplete third season of South Side, which I adore, so that will most likely get added to my top of the pile list once it runs its course. I also note that I’m not including the great Yellowjackets, because most of its debut season premiered and aired in 2021, though we did get a few episodes last January. As a preamble to my Top Ten of 2022 list, here’s my honorable mentions list of ten shows that engaged me enough to make me keep watching, and which I enjoyed well enough, but not to a point that makes me want to laud them as the best of the best of anything:

• 1899 (Season One)
• Beavis and Butthead (Season Nine)
• Disenchantment (Season Four)
• Los Espookys (Season Two)
• Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities (Season One)
• The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power (Season One)
• Only Murders in the Building (Season Two)
• Resident Alien (Season Two)
• Rick and Morty (Seasons Five and Six)
• Undone (Season Two)

And then here are the ten best serial things I watched in 2022, counting down toward what I deem to be the very best the year offered:

#10. The English (Season One): This one had some structural flaws (too episodic in its first installments, with some confusing relationships between cast members), but once its pieces finally clicked about four episodes in, the climax and denouement were worth the bumpy early ride. Outstanding performances in the lead roles by Emily Blunt and Chaske Spencer, with some fun guest stars popping up in various episodes as well.

#9. Shoresy (Season One): Shoresy (the character) was a one-note comedic part in the hilarious Canadian comedy Letterkenny, so when a spin-off series about him was announced, I was skeptical that it could work. But, happily enough, it did, adding some back-story depth to a caricature of a character, putting together a fun new ensemble cast, and creating a series story arc that actually made you care how it turned out.

#8. Solar Opposites (Season Three): Justin Roiland’s Solar Opposites looks, sounds, and feels a lot like its creator’s other great show, Rick and Morty. I like both of them a lot, but this year Solar Opposites seemed to edge ahead of its older sibling in terms of lasting quality entertainment value, in large part because of the increased number of episodes prominently featuring modern TV’s greatest supporting character: The Pupa.

#7. The Tourist (Season One): As I was working on this list, I noted that The Tourist had been renewed for a second season. Enhhh . . . I’m not feeling that, and I think they should have left this alone as a limited-release series, given how incredibly the first block of episodes ended, and how crazy the ride to get there was. Dark, dark, and dark throughout, even though you’ll find yourself giggling every now and again, nervously.

#6. What We Do In the Shadows (Season Four): As with Shoresy, I was highly skeptical that this series, based on a film that I love, could have had lasting entertainment value. And, as with Shoresy again, I was wrong. The core ensemble cast here makes the whole thing work brilliantly, and regular on-screen or behind-the-scenes guest involvement from the original film’s Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement are always welcome.

#5. Our Flag Means Death (Season One): Taika Waititi on the list again with a fabulously over-the-top and outre pirate serial based on the true stories of Stede Bonnet, once known as “The Gentleman Pirate,” and Edward Teach, a.k.a. Blackbeard. Yeah, all the expected pirate tropes are here, but beyond that, well, to its great credit, it explicitly goes places that a century’s worth of sweaty sailors at sea sagas have typically ignored.

#4. Somebody Somewhere (Season One): I’m not sure why we started this one, as it lacks the usual links or tags or stars or topics or buzz that normally catch my attention. But, boy, I sure am glad I tuned in, as this was the most wonderful, laugh-out-loud, cry-in-your-beer, life-affirming, tragicomedy of errors I’ve seen in some time, with a great cast bringing a vibrant collection of quirky characters to life, full of heart and soul.

#3. Reservation Dogs (Season Two): It’s a Taiki Waititi hat trick in my top ten, this time with the great Kiwi writer-director-actor co-creating an Indigenous American dramedy with Seminole-Muscogee writer-director Sterlin Harjo. Once again, core cast is key, along with a patient writing and directorial style that spools out stories in dribs and drabs over time, rather than showing or telling everything up front, or all at once.

#2. Severance (Season One): Great concept, great cast, great visuals, great show! It’s science fiction on one level, sure, but like Patrick McGoohan’s great The Prisoner (one of my all-time favorite shows), it’s often what’s not shown, or what’s not explained, that creates the deepest dread, and spawns the most suspense. Season One’s ending was incredible, with a crucial reveal and a cliffhanger knit together just perfectly, just so.

#1. Atlanta (Seasons Three and Four): While Severance‘s Season One ending showed how to best set up an ensuing season, Atlanta‘s series finale showed up to best wrap up an insanely brilliant television program at the peak of its powers. Oh, I’m gonna miss Earn, Alfred, Darius and Van, for sure, but Donald Glover has been such a genius creator over the years that whatever he give us next, I known it’s going to be grand.

As noted above, I deeply dug the first two episodes of South Side‘s latest season this week, and I’m also looking forward to getting into the new Sherman’s Showcase series soon. Was there anything else out there that I need to see before 2022 runs its course? Or, probably more relevantly, was there anything else out there that I saw and forgot about, but will be reminded of as soon as I post this article, and Marcia or Katelin or John refresh my memory. There may well be edits. Hold onto your popcorn and milkshakes accordingly . . .

You want perfect television? This here’s perfect television. Get on it!